1. Field of Invention
The present invention is an interactive card based gaming system and method. More particularly, the invention is an interactive poker game in which a player is awarded a prize for having a winning hand according to a paytable.
2. Background
Traditional Poker uses a standard pack of playing cards having 52 cards and possibly more cards depending on the use of wild cards like jokers. The card ranking from highest to lowest is Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. There are four suits, namely, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. No suit is higher than another suit. The use of Wild Cards depends on the variation of poker being played. A wild card may either be a separate card or an added card like a Joker. For example, a particular card may be specified in the standard deck to be wild like the “deuces”, i.e. all different suits of the 2 card.
The number of cards is dependent on what type of poker game is being played. For example if a five card stud poker game is being played, then each player is dealt five cards, and for a seven card stud game seven cards are dealt. Each hand that is dealt is ranked to determine the award granted to the player. The best natural hand, i.e. no wild cards, is a straight flush. A straight flush is five cards in a row that are all the same suit, e.g. 7, 8, 9, 10, and J. The highest straight flush is a Royal Flush which is an Ace high straight flush. The second best hand is Four-of-a-Kind in which there are four cards of the same rank. If there are two or more hands, the hand with the higher rank of four wins. The third best hand is a Full House which consists of three of a kind and a pair, e.g. 7, 7, 7♦, 2, and 2. The fourth best hand is a flush which consists of a hand in which all the cards are the said suit, e.g. 2, 6, 10, J and Q. The fifth best hand is a Straight which consists of five cards in a row that do not have the same suit, e.g. 2, 3, 4♦, 5, and 6♦. The sixth best hand is three of a kind which consists of three cards having the same rank with the remaining cards not being a pair, e.g. 7, 7, 7♦, 2, and 5. Other hands includes two pair, one pair, and high card.
In a traditional poker game the play is initiated by with an “ante” bet that provides the player with a hand of playing cards. The ante money is put in the center of the table and is referred to as the “pot”. There are three choices the player has when wagering during a poker game: call, raise and fold. A “call” matches the last bet placed. A “raise” matches the last bet and increases the bet amount. A “fold” results in the player losing his hand and losing the possibility of winning the pot.
In a typical five card stud game each player puts in an ante and then receives five cards face down. A round of betting is initiated based on the cards dealt. Each player then chooses the amount of cards to discard from their respective hand. For each card discarded, the player receives a new card. Then another round of betting is initiated. After the betting, each player reveals their respective hand and the highest hand wins the pot.
The traditional poker game described above has been adapted for video. One of the most popular video games in Nevada-style casinos is Video Poker. One well known illustrative standard video poker game is the Jacks or Better video game manufactured by International Gaming Technologies, Inc in Reno, Nev. In this video poker game a player is provided with a choice of which cards to hold and which cards to discard in exchange for newer cards. The player does not play against other players, and the player optimum choices during the video poker game are dependent on the history of the cards dealt and on the paytable displayed to the player.
A plurality of patent have issued for variations of the Jacks or Better video poker game. One of these variations to video poker permit the player to simultaneously play multiple poker hands as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,405 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,311 which are hereby incorporated by reference. Additionally, many patents teach modifying a traditional poker such as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,100 “'100 patent” which is also hereby incorporated by reference. The '100 patent teaches allowing a player to sequentially build a card hand after each round of play from a pair of cards that are dealt to the player. During the game session the player selects one of the pair of cards for the card hand and discards the other card. The resulting hand is compared to a paytable to determine if the player is awarded a prize.
It shall be appreciated by those skilled in the art of gaming that traditional poker and the various video poker games are viewed by many players as a game of skill. For purposes of this patent, “player skill” includes three components: minimal skill, dexterity skill, and knowledge skill. Generally, all games include these components, however, the degree of skill varies for each game. Minimal skill requires a minimal understanding of the rules of the game and minimal dexterity needed to apply the rules of the game. To play a game according to the game rules, the player must possess minimal skill.
By way of example and not of limitation, a lottery game is a game that in principle only requires minimal skill. The minimal skill required is the selection of numbers from a card having a plurality of numbers within. The correct amount of numbers must be identified before the lottery drawing. The game outcome is theoretically random so little or no dexterity skill or knowledge skill is used. Other games that theoretically rely on random events include traditional keno and stand-alone slot machines.
Dexterity skill is based on the player's reflexes or coordination. Most games require a degree of dexterity to establish game play. Certain games such as arcade video games or pinball machines are primarily dexterity based skill games. For example, in the well-known “Pong” video game, the player removes bricks from a wall by causing a ball to “hit” the brick with a player controlled paddle. Dexterity skill is needed to ensure that the ball strikes the paddle so that the player may continue playing the game. The objective during game play is to generate as many points as possible, and this objective is generally achieved by playing the game as long as possible.
Knowledge skill is based on the player's experience and analytical abilities. Most games require a degree of knowledge skill during game play. For example, the Pong game described above requires a certain amount of knowledge skill in anticipating how the ball will bounce off the brick wall. However, this level of knowledge is minimal when compared to the level of dexterity skill.
An illustrative example of a casino-type game that uses knowledge skill is a standard video poker game of Jack or Better. In this video poker game a player is provided with a choice of which cards to hold and which cards to discard in exchange for newer cards. The optimum choice made by the player is dependent on the paytable for the video poker game. For illustrative purposes, with a paytable that pays a Royal Flush 800, a Straight Flush 50, Four of a Kind 25, a Full House 9, a Flush 6, a Straight 4, Three of a Kind 3, Two Pair 2 and a Pair of Jacks or Better 1, the player has a theoretical optimum return of 99.5%. Thus, if a player starts with a $20 bill, and wagers $1 at a rate of six games per minute, this loss rate is $1.80 per hour and on average the player could play for 11 hours before consuming all the playing funds. In the illustrative example of the standard video poker machine, the knowledge skill used by the player is dependent on the amount wagered, the cards initially dealt to the player, the cards discarded by the player, the new cards provided to the player and the paytable for compensating the player. During the game session, the player attempts to optimize his/her award according to the paytable. Since the optimal player outcome is dependent on the paytable, a “knowledgeable” player's decision will be highly dependent on the paytable. The paytable provided in the illustrative standard video poker machine is a static paytable. A static paytable does not change during game play and provides a fixed award for each award event.
It shall be appreciated by player's experienced in video poker games that video poker games requires a heightened level of knowledge based skill. This heightened level of knowledge based skill permits the player to have the opportunity to apply a variety of different strategies to maximize winnings and minimize losses. In spite of the heightened level of skill, the well known video poker games provide limited interactivity. For example, the player only has one opportunity to discard one or more cards after each hand is drawn. Additionally, even if the player has a plurality of opportunities to discard cards, the player must wait until new cards are exchanged before knowing if the player is awarded a prize. In well-known video poker games, the paytable remains static. This static paytable does not mimic a traditional poker game in which the “pot” is dynamic and changes and generally increases as the poker game continues.